Directed by Lewis Allen • 1947 • United States
Starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster

Lurid Technicolor, deep-dish melodrama, and gay subtext abound in this pulpy noir firecracker. In the desert town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, tempers flare, passions spark, and violence erupts when Paula (Lizabeth Scott), the defiant daughter of a hard-boiled casino owner (Mary Astor) falls for no-good gangster Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak)—igniting the jealousy of Bendix’s possessive partner (Wendell Corey, in his film debut). In one of his earliest film roles, Burt Lancaster costars as the local cop who finds himself embroiled in the deadly tangle.